The Garden of Seasons
by Luna Moonglade
Summary: James is sitting in a garden that isn't fond of secrets but he holds a few. What will happen to the marauders when they think nothing can survive past graduation. And will Lily discover her true feelings about James? R & R! Oneshot.


The Garden of Seasons

The golden leaves shuffled on their branches and fell lightly on the marble bench. It was white marble, with Greek carvings of people, places and magic engraved on the sides. Simply pure… and beautiful.

But the other one… The one that sat on the other side, against the other wall, wasn't pure. Its beauty came from the simplicity of it's shadowed color; it's darkness and vengeance. And there were no carvings. In fact, it looked more like a rectangular block of stone – with fatally sharp edges and an illusional appearance of smooth sides that would really scrape you if you sat on it – than a bench. Though, James had always ignored this one and sat on the other, filled with sunshine light and the happiness of two lovers' embraced. Not his own – though he wished it were – being that the action belonged to the people carved on the sides. Or the carver himself… but that wasn't right, because he had carved them. Yes, James. Not with his hands, for they were not strong enough to carry love, only his mind, his spirit, his soul, were possibly able to bare such a task.

James Potter came to this place quite often. This was his own secret spot that he would only share with one other. Unfortunately though, he didn't know whom the one was, that he was supposed to share The Garden with. Surely that was the reason why he had been coming so often: to find his love. Or more, let her find him. Hopefully though, it would be Lily. Lily Evans.

How he wanted to share it with her! When he had first found The Garden, he could barely take in a breath, scared that he'd contaminate it. And he wouldn't blink; horrified that it would dissolve or evaporate into the comfortable warm air around him. There was no other place like it. The large and ancient tree in the center sprouted autumn leaves of gold, red and orange, while the flowers below, scattered beautifully speckle-dotted in the summer-green grass, blossomed like in early spring. Then there were the statues and the sculptures. They were either covered in winter snow or made of an ever-lasting ice that never melted yet somehow contributed fresh, freezing water to the small fountain in the back of the stonewalled type of courtyard. The water flowing was indescribable in it self; filled with the colors of the seasons. All of them.

After the first time he had seen it all, he had noticeably changed to everyone, but himself. At least, at first. Then he began to notice things too. Small changes and big ones…

_"I don't feel like it."_

_"Don't feel like it? James! This is the best prank we could ever pull off in a lifetime and you just say you don't feel like it? Do you want to see Madam Pomfrey? Are you sick?"_

_"Sirius, I'm bloody fine! I- I just don't know if it's a good idea."_

_"James! We've been doing this for almost seven years and you've always thought it was a good idea! What's different this time?"_

_"It's just… I have to go."_

_"Where? Again?"_

_"Yah. I just… have to go and think about things."_

_"Fine! Leave then! What's gotten over you? We never fight, but it's been happening so often now. You've changed, James, and I don't know why. Remus and Peter have noticed too… you're hiding from us. You're ignoring us and you've been thinking about things either than pranks and Lily! That's bad, James! Really bad!"_

_"Sirius, look at yourself. I'm not the only one who's changed. Even you are doing more of your homework. You're working harder when you don't have to and you're not winking at every girl you see. The Marauders, I think, are changing."_

_"You're right, James. We are. We're moving apart. We're breaking up. It just isn't working anymore. Maybe we should just end it now, before it gets worse."_

_"That would be 'worse,' wouldn't it?"_

_"No." Sirius had paused and scowled at him, " Questioning it is."_

…That was right. He had questioned their friendship. That was the worst thing he could do, and he felt horrible about it. And true as it were, they had been fighting. He never felt like doing anything, except Quidditch and sitting on the marble bench – the white one – in The Garden. He went there after every fight to console his soul and his feelings… and his anger. The moment he entered, it was like it sucked everything horrible out of him and he felt tranquil and pleasant. No pressure… not a thing to worry about, but the fight he had just left - somehow - he still felt. _The Marauders are over,_ he thought, _and even The Garden won't help me now. Perhaps I should give up hope. Everyone else has_.

Silence overcame him and even the Seasonal Waters stopped flowing in the fountain, as if time had stopped. The clouds stopped shifting, the birds their singing, and the bright light from the sun seemed false, fake and ugly. James looked around, folded up some sheets of parchment, and along with them, placed his quill on the white bench. It looked as if it were cheaply painted now – the bench, not the quill. In fact, the only beauty that seemed to shine came from the shadowed, black block across from him. Maybe, he should move. It was a whole lot prettier and perhaps it could cheer him up. Oddly enough and immediately, the idea was unhealthily enticing, and persuasive. The very thought of it seemed to push any pressures from his mind, but wasn't that because he felt pressured to do so? It wasn't like before, when his troubles would just leave him. It was like this experience was replacing troubles with more – only they were hidden and more complicated. Before he could move though, he heard a small gasp from the archway into his Garden, forcing him to turn his head to see who was there.

"Lily?" he whispered, loud enough for her to hear. Besides the black bench, she was the only other thing that looked alive. And compared to him, she was the only person who looked even close. Looking like he had fallen from over a hundred feet off his broom, James blinked his red eyes. For the first time in ages, James Potter… _The_ James Potter had cried. As simple as that, he had.

The red-haired girl looked around at the scene flabbergasted, until her eyes fell on James and narrowed, "Potter! Why did you lead me here?"

"Lead you here? What do you mean?" there was no smirk, no chuckle… heck! He didn't even wink at her or ask her out by using some funny pick-up line.

Lily surveyed him carefully, "Potter, you left a trail of Dung Bombs all the way here, and because of them I smell horrible!"

"Why did you come here then, if you had to follow them and have more of them explode in your face? I didn't put them there anyway." It was true. He hadn't.

"Because, Potter, I'm sick and tired of your pranks and I want you to stop!" she glared at him, paused openmouthed and then blinked. "What do you mean you didn't put them there? They led right to you!"

Angrily, he stood up and started to take slow steps towards her, "Haven't you noticed anything different about me, Evans?"

"What?' she trembled at his un-blinking gaze. James took a step.

"Haven't you noticed anything at all? Everyone else has," _Crunch_. It seemed that the summer grass had died and turned yellow and hard, like straw. Decaying leaves were scattered on the ground.

Lily tried desperately to not break down or to collapse. What was happening? Everything was dying and James was intimidating her, "N-no, Potter."

He cursed at the ground and then looked up at the uneasy girl once more, motioning to the surroundings, "I used to think that this place was beautiful, but look at it now. It's like this, because I changed Lily. I guess you're the last thing that's going to do so in my life, because besides my friends, you've meant so much to me. This place must have decided to take you away after everything else, because you'd be the one to make me crumble, and because you're one of the only things I've ever wanted and never got."

At this line, Lily somehow found her confidence, "I'm will not be your object, Potter, and I've never been yours, so how could this place possibly take me away. You do realize that it has no hands?"

The silence before he spoke was filled with so much sorrow and hate that Lily hurt deep down and quickly regretted what she had said. James took the last few steps towards her, "You don't smell bad Lily, and I didn't put the Dung Bombs there," the boy gave one last glance around. "Good bye." He didn't even look at her as he stormed past, but once he had left, everything looked even worse in the once lovely place. The fountain, Lily noticed, dried up, and the autumn tree had no more leaves. Even the flowers were rotting away, and the beginnings of a grape vine vanished from one side of the stonewall. That's when something caught her eye. Spare pieces of parchment were lying on the white bench, all folded and neat, and a quill lay forgotten beside them.

"James?" she cried out to him, picked up the quill and peaked her head out of the archway, but he was already gone. "You forgot your…" There was no real point in continuing if there was no one to hear her, right? So why bother?

Lily turned her attention back to the parchments and hurriedly strode over to them. Picking them up, she unfolded the first one and began to read a list.

_Secrets I've been hiding…_

_1. __I found The Garden, which I've never told a soul about. There's something about this place that makes me feel like I should never leave._

_2. __I've been thinking more about life and less about pranks and love. It's strange, but I feel no guilt, or am I trying to escape… from the past?_

_3. __I've been learning things about people by observing them. Like how Lily will say she hates me, and yet be silent after words, or how she secretly hides the gifts I give her and will pretend to discard a supposedly full box of the item._

She smiled slightly at this, "How did he know…"

_4. __I've been concentrating on my work and less on pranks, because I want her to know that I can be serious and that I can care about something more than what I already have._

_5. __I want Lily to be mine. Not like the way someone might beg for a broom that everyone but him has, but for it to be given to him like a gift by the person's own accord._

Lily didn't say a word to this and just let her smile grow. The grass looked a little greener.

_6. __As much as I still hate Malfoy and Snape, I believe I'm beginning to let any feelings of revenge go. I just don't believe it's worth it any more._

_7. __The Marauders I am sure, are over. We've changed too much to let it continue._

_8. __In The Garden I found a description on the side of the fountain and at first I thought it was a rule. I guess rules are meant to be broken._

_9. __If you walk under the tree while thinking bad thoughts, it moans until you laugh. If you leave The Garden without laughing you will lose a Quiddich match or at least have bad luck till you do so._

_10. __This list is something I will never show to anyone, since my life is very well done. You cannot have a good life when you find that the black stone bench is beautiful._

Lily looked around and found a single lily thriving in the center of death. It was next to the empty and cracking fountain. She rose and strode delicately over and found an engraving on the crumbling mass, looking as if it were crying out, struggling or grasping for its last moments of life.

**The room that in which you stand, signifies the unbalance of a person's soul that's yet to be complete. Two people are need to complete one soul and without the hope of achieving this; the imaginary world that one half has completed will wither and die away along with its creator. Only two people can imagine the same paradise in a lifetime. Only two may cross the boundaries. And only two may leave. James is your match, Lily. Take it or leave it.**

She shot away from the paragraph. It had used her name and James'. It was as if the room was mocking her in a game of matchmaker. But it couldn't be game, since she wasn't playing. She was living.

Hurrying by the slowly growing flowers, she ran past the tree that did not moan and left the small yet large courtyard. The only thought on her mind could be spoken in one word. Or name if you will. _James._

_

* * *

_

He walked quickly away from the room and up a moving staircase, down the corridor where a figure stood in grieving silence. It was Sirius.

"James," he called weakly. But he didn't hear him in his anger for life and went on right past him. A hand grabbed urgently at his arm, "James! Listen to me! I'm sorry." Sirius was able to turn him around, but found him with a frozen, cold dead gaze. "James! James? Are you all right buddy? James? Look, you might not want to talk to me, but I've been thinking a lot." He stopped when he felt his friend shift. James hadn't moved, but he felt warmer; more alive.

"Me too," he said it like a breath.

Sirius tried to smile, but was focusing all of his energy on keeping eye contact instead of glancing down to look at his muffed brown shoes, "Look buddy, I don't want to lose you. Or the Marauders for that sake." He put both his hands on James' shoulders to steady him and force him to look at him. "I understand that we're maturing – I never thought it'd happen," he added for a joke. Got a small smile, "But it did, and I guess I wasn't ready right away. I'll even go as far as to admit that I overreacted. But your right James; in every way possible. We're graduating soon and pranking doesn't help much in the real world unless you're opening a joke shop. Aurors don't do that sort of thing, do they?" James managed a slight shake of the head. "Exactly. Which is why I was thinking of only doing one last joke…" Sirius waited for any reaction. James gave a stiff eyebrow raise. It was barely noticeable, but was enough to give him the confidence to go on, " You see, everyone's expecting us to end our time with a finale, but perhaps doing nothing is finale enough. Or maybe we'll just set off normal fireworks. I think it'd be a shocker to anyone that we'd actually just celebrate. No big plans or anything. So what do you think?"

James relaxed and smile, "We'll end with a big bang."

"Right. We will," Sirius sighed and gave his friend a hug. It took some time for James to hug him too, but when it came, the fight had been forgiven. He could almost hear the fountain in the garden start up again. The water of endless colors reflecting light and dividing them into a trillion rings that reminded him of an angel's halo would flow once again in The Garden. That black block felt like it was fading away from the back of his mind.

"Padfoot…" James mumbled, "Tell Moony and Wormtail to meet us in the kitchens for a drink. The Marauders aren't dead yet."

Nothing could stop Sirius from grinning. Beneath his dark hair you could almost see tears springing from his eyes, "Shall we go together?"

"JAMES!" a feminine cry was voiced behind them.

"On my own then," Sirius chuckled. "I'll catch you in the kitchens later, Prongs." He left, his shoes thumping softly on the carpet.

James didn't even have time to see who called him – though he had a large idea who – before he felt two slender arms snake around his neck and a petite body snuggle closely into him. "James…" came a sweet voice. It was muffled in his shirt. Two wet large green eyes looked up at him. "James, I don't know what to say."

"Lily, you do realize you're cuddling me?"

She ignored the comment, "James, forgive me from earlier. I… I… I'm proud of you." Forget the fireworks at the end of the year. This was a shocker enough. "No really. I am." She spoke after seeing his expression of surprise.

"Well, I wouldn't expect you to say that," he found his arms wrapping around her like a vine clinging to a tree.

Lily's face gave him a soft curve of the lips. An upwards curve that made his stomach flutter, "James don't you see? I found you in The Garden." His mouth opened at the name. How'd she know what to call it? "I read the engraving and your list and the tree never moaned! Everything's alive again! James…" her voice bubbled softer, "it said that only two people can enter and leave the place that only we knew of. That must mean something." He didn't let her say anymore. Staring into her eyes mesmerized him into doing something that he had always dreamed of doing. He leaned forward towards her, his lips playing with hers in a gentle kiss that he had to force himself not to rush further. Breaking apart, he tightened his arms around Lily and they lay there in a blissful silence. Only when they listened carefully beneath their breaths, could they hear the sound of their hearts beating in synch to the same perfect rhythm.

* * *

_Thump._

_Thump._

_Thump._

The footsteps stopped in front of the open door. The room was darker than night, but somehow he still saw them: the quill, the papers and the room full of… nothing. Sirius walked over and picked up the objects; the wooden floor creaking beneath him.

"Who'd have thought that a trail of dung bombs would bring two hearts together?"

….

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Tell me in your reviews! Luv you all!

Luna


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